Lawyer: Ex-pain clinic owner sentenced to 20 years to appeal

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The attorney for a Wisconsin woman sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges she illegally prescribed opioids out of her pain clinic plans to appeal on grounds that a federal judge made a mistake.

U.S. District Chief Judge Pamela Pepper handed down the mandatory minimum sentence Friday for 61-year-old Lisa Hofschulz, of Wauwatosa.

A jury in August convicted Hofschulz of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Beau Brindley, Lisa Hofschulz's attorney, tells The Associated Press that Pepper failed to instruct the jury that a doctor's "subjective good faith is a complete defense against these charges."

Brindley says a similar instruction was allowed in a case involving the operator of a Manitowoc pain clinic who was acquitted in 2017 of overprescribing narcotic medications.